After nearly a century in storage and time spent in a First World War trench, they are unlikely to inspire many appetites.
But despite their culinary deficiencies, two biscuits that survived the Great War have sold at auction for more than £340 - almost six times their guide price.
The wartime snacks went under the hammer at Lockdales auctioneers in Martlesham yesterday with a starting price of just £60. But after 10 collectors, from as far and wide as France and America, made bids for the unusual wartime memorabilia they went on to fetch £342.
A woman from England made the winning bid.James Sadler, auction manager said: “We are delighted to have had so many bidders - it was quite remarkable what the biscuits went for.”
Their original owner, was an LB Charles, who fought in the ill-fated battles of Gallipoli and the Dardanelles and returned to the UK with the biscuits.
It is believed the soldier in question was Lieutenant Lionel Bruce Charles of the 5th Battalion, The Queens Regiment, who is said to have lived for a time at Wroxham House, Norwich.
The biscuits, each marked with a label reading “Biscuits used by troops in Sulva Bay”, had been preserved for the past 99 years.
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